Re: Git should preserve modification times at least on request

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Feb 20, 2018, 21:16 UTC
Message-ID: <20180220211634.GA15232@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <20180219212235.GA9891@helen.PLASMA.Xg8.DE>

On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 10:22:36PM +0100, Peter Backes wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> please ensure to CC me if you reply as I am not subscribed to the list.
> 
> https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Git_FAQ#Why_isn.27t_Git_preserving_modification_time_on_files.3F 
> argues that git isn't preserving modification times because it needs to 
> ensure that build tools work properly.

I think there are some references buried somewhere in that wiki, but did you look at any of the third-party tools that store file metadata alongside the files in the repository? E.g.:

  https://etckeeper.branchable.com/

or

  https://github.com/przemoc/metastore

I didn't see either of those mentioned in this thread (though I also do not have personal experience with them, either).

Modification times are a subset of the total metadata you might care about, so they are solving a much more general problem. Which may also partially answer your question about why this isn't built into git. The general problem gets much bigger when you start wanting to carry things like modes (which git doesn't actually track; we really only care about the executable bit) or extended attributes (acls, etc).

-Peff